Magna Graecia, Apulian Gnathian, ca. late 4th century BCE. An attractive blackware pottery pitcher with trefoil spout decorated in the Gnathian technique with fugitive red, white, and yellow pigments. Boasting a glossy surface and bulbous body, the elegant vessel is adorned with several horizontal registers along its sloped shoulder, consisting of parallel horizontal and vertical striations, Vitruvian-type scrolls, flared and dashed lines, and an intricate vegetal motif with slender meandering vines and lovely flowers. Two thick bands of red and white decorate the base of the vessel. Size: 5.75" in diameter x 10" H (14.6 cm x 25.4 cm)

Gnathia ware is named for the site where it was first discovered - the Apulian site of Egnathia. The black glaze ware is traditionally decorated with floral motifs in red, white, and/or yellow hues. Scholars believe that its production most likely was centered around Taras, with primary workshops in Egnathia and Canosa. The quantity and quality of Greek colonial Apulian potters increased significantly following the Peloponnesian War when Attic exports dramatically decreased. Apulian artistry demonstrates influences of Ionian (Athenian, Attic) conventions, as well as Doric (western colonial Greek) styles, with a palpable native Italian aesthetic.

A similar oinochoe of slightly smaller scale can be found at Harvard's Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, under accession number 36-72-40/3670.

Provenance: private New York, USA collection; ex-private New York, New York, USA collection; ex-private Herefordshire, United Kingdom collection, 1970

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#164987

Collection labels on base. Some light abrasions and chipping to paint. Otherwise, intact and excellent with impressive remaining pigments and lovely iridescence.